


And I Have Loved You Oh So Long (Delighting in Your Company)

by semperpugnandi



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Teacher!Lena, and just the girls being cute and falling in love, basically i saw katie looking like an elementary teacher and knew this had to be my holiday fic, dumbass!Kara, holiday fundraiser shenanigans, like people pouring buckets of water on each other car wash, ruby intervenes which means sam and alex intervene, there's a car wash scene if that feels relevant to you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 09:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21967063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperpugnandi/pseuds/semperpugnandi
Summary: When Sam and Alex's schedules get hectic with new promotions, Kara valiantly takes it upon herself to pick her niece up from school each day. This entirely selfless action definitely has nothing to do with Ruby's gorgeous teacher. Not even a little. So she's a bit caught off guard when her niece tells Sam and Alex otherwise and even more so when her sister-in-law decides to do some meddling.Or holiday fundraisers are a lot more fun when they include two helpless, pining gays.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Samantha "Sam" Arias/Alex Danvers
Comments: 39
Kudos: 1022
Collections: Supercorp Content Creators' Guild Secret Santa Exchange 2019





	And I Have Loved You Oh So Long (Delighting in Your Company)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kmswrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kmswrites/gifts).



> I wrote this for my lovely friend Kiandra (AO3: @kmswrites | Twitter/Tumblr: @kmsdraws) in our secret santa exchange, and just knew I had to write Lena as an elementary school teacher after seeing Katie in that 100th episode dress. Please enjoy my holiday fic for this year, and I hope you're all having a great holiday season!!

“Isn’t the last week of school before the holidays supposed to be finals?”

Kara frowned as both Sam and Alex laughed a little at her and shook their heads.

“Yeah, I mean I guess technically, but also, Ruby’s seven. So no, they don’t have finals week,” Alex explained as she cleaned off their country and shot her wife a pointed look to tag team off of her and fill in the information Kara needed.

Sam flashed Kara a smirk and related, “Her school does a big fundraiser week before Christmas to help pay for scholarships and equipment and such for the following year. All the students and teachers participate in one way or another; it’s a lot of fun.”

Kara nodded, confidently trying to sell the fact that she was keeping up, but some confusion still lingered in her eyes. “Well it sounds like more fun than finals,” she commented, and Sam hummed amused.

“Thanks for all you help this year, by the way, Kara,” Alex offered sincerely, turning back to the counter from the sink and leaning over to address her sister more directly. “I don’t know what Sam and I would have done without you picking Ruby up everyday. Hopefully after the holidays, our work schedules will calm down a bit, and we’ll be able to take back over.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kara brushed off easily with a smile. “I’m always happy to help!”

Sam’s expression morphed more into a sincere one as she explained, “Seriously, Kara. Thank you. It means a lot, and I know Ruby loves seeing you everyday.”

“Aunt Kara loves picking me up!” a small voice called out from behind them, and Alex let out a little laugh as Sam sighed and turned around with an unimpressed look on her face.

“You’re supposed to be in bed. It’s a school night,” Sam chastised as Ruby ran up to her and crawled up in her lap, completely ignoring her mom’s orders.

“Aunt Kara did you tell them that you love picking me up because you love Miss Luthor?” she asked excitedly, and Kara immediately started coughing in surprise, her cheeks turning bright red.

Alex and Sam’s eyebrows both raised as they glanced over at Kara who was spluttering in an attempt to rebuttal Ruby’s statement. “Rubes, I do not- Rao, I don’t know why she said that; I’ve never told her that,” Kara protested, and a smirk began to form on her sister’s face.

“Kara, do you pick up my daughter from school to get laid?” she asked, and Sam quickly swatted at her before covering Ruby’s ears with her hands and glaring over at her wife.

Seemingly unbothered by her mother trying to take her out of the conversation, Ruby spoke up again, saying, “She looks at Miss Luthor the way mommies look at each other.”

Now Kara was hiding her head in her arms on the table and letting out a long sigh, trying to figure out how she was going to dig herself out of this hole, when Sam spoke up.

“Eight year olds are pretty damn perceptive, and I’m tempted to believe her unless you offer some proof to the contrary?” Kara peeked one of her eyes out of her arm to glance up at Sam, who was now joining Alex in teasing her she realized. She let out a groan and shook her head as she buried it back in her arms, and Alex and Sam both let out laughs.

“I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me, Kara,” Alex finally commented with a pointed look. “You and my daughter’s teacher, and you don’t even bother to give me a courtesy call?”

“Rao- Alex, it’s nothing. It’s just a really pretty woman, and some harmless flirting. I’m sure she gets it from all the parents,” Kara grumbled, sitting up and crossing her arms.

“Sure it is,” Alex shot back, earning a glare from her sister, and Sam laughed a little before standing to put Ruby back to bed.

Kara was just about to walk out of CatCo when her phone buzzed. Looking at it quickly, Kara bit her cheek and held her breath as she saw Sam’s name pop up. Usually, she was happy to talk to her sister-in-law, but after Ruby’s revelation the night before that she had an _innocent_ crush on her teacher, Kara was now understandably on edge to get a call from Sam moments before she was meant to go pick Ruby up.

“Hey,” Kara picked up after mentally preparing herself for whatever this call might be. “What’s up, Sam?”

“I’m just calling to let you know you don’t have to worry about picking Ruby up today,” Sam related to her, and Kara stopped mid stride, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Why?” Kara asked after a beat, the suspicion seeping into her voice.

Sam let out a little laugh and related, “I got out early today. I’m going to pick her up.”

Kara debated with herself for a long moment on whether or not she wanted to question Sam on this, knowing if she did, she would most likely regret it. “You never get out early,” Kara finally pointed out.

“Okay, so I took part of the day off,” Sam relented easily, her tone amused.

“Why?” Kara found herself asking again, biting her cheek.

“So I can investigate this little crush of yours Kara, why else?” she explained as if it were obvious, and Kara felt like the air was knocked out of her.

“What!” she screeched, and immediately cringed as almost everyone in the office looked up at her concerned and she tried to wave their concern away. “Sam, seriously, I’ll just pick up Ruby, don’t-”

With a loud laugh, Sam pointed out, “Look I’m showing up either way, so unless you want to explain to Miss Luthor why both of us are there for Ruby, I suggest you just let me pick her up.”

Kara let out a low groan and frowned, knowing Sam would get the visual across the phone of how she was pouting.

“Chin up, Little Danvers,” Sam comforted. “I’ll be discreet; I promise.”

There were certain truths in Lena’s life that she had come to expect. The cafeteria food was always awful (even if some days it smelled okay). The laminator in room 228 would always be broken on Tuesdays. Second graders had the mob mentality that would bring grown men to their knees if and when you brought up recess.

And her favorite parent pick up would happen after the initial rush at exactly 3:02 PM every day.

It was 3:08 PM, and Lena was now sitting back on the steps of the school with Ruby. Both girls were wondering what might have happened to Kara to make her so uncharacteristically late, and while Ruby seemed mildly off put by the idea she would get ten minutes less of cartoons when this was all said and done, Lena couldn’t help the stiff worry that coursed through her body and became stronger with every minute she watched pass on her clock.

Was Kara okay? Was it even her place to worry if Kara was okay? Ruby had told her a while back that she had two mommies, and Lena was pretty sure it was a straight shot to the Bad Place to continuously flirt with a married mother every day. But Kara always came, bubbly smile and complements abounding, and every day Lena felt a little weaker in the knees and a little more helpless to do anything but respond with her naturally formed witty quips.

As soon as she would leave, Lena would feel guilty. Ruby seemed to love her family a lot, especially Kara. It wasn’t fair to any of them that she would do anything to harm that. And so she would resolve every evening to put an end to it the next day. And every morning, she inexplicably found herself looking forward to see Kara again.

So, yeah. She was stuck in an endless cycle. In her defense, she was a second grade teacher. Most of the people she associated with needed her help blowing their noses and tying their shoes, so it wasn’t like she was meeting a lot of attractive women every day. She was but a helpless lesbian who would take the crumbs she could get in a sunshine-y mom who looked at her like she just gave her the last candy bar in the store.

“Mom!” Ruby greeted excitedly, standing at Lena’s side and Lena looked over in surprise, yanking herself from her thoughts. Following Ruby’s line of sight, her eyes eagerly looked up to find Kara, but faltered a bit when a gorgeous woman stood in her place.

The woman’s eyes lit up when she saw Lena, who was now slowly standing to greet her. Quickly, she made her way over to the teacher and shook hands with her eagerly.

“You must be Miss Luthor,” the woman greeted, her other hand holding Ruby’s hand tightly. “My daughter and Kara have told me so much about you,” she offered eagerly. “I’m Sam.”

Lena fought the slight pink creeping its way onto her face and studied the woman’s--Sam’s--face carefully, as if she was searching for any lingering resentment or hatred towards her. It wouldn’t be the first time parents would come to the school to accuse her of drawing their partner’s eyes away from them. It would, however, potentially be the first time she would find herself guilty of it to some degree.

But instead, Lena was only met with kindness and sincerity and she wondered for a brief moment if that could even be considered better.

“Please,” Lena grimaced with a smile. “Just call me Lena.”

“Lena, got it,” Sam nodded and shot her that effortless smile, and Lena had an acute realization that of _course_ someone as beautiful and funny and bright as Kara was married to someone who was equally those things. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around much this year. Look at us, it’s the end of the semester and we’re just getting introduced,” she joked, and Lena accompanied her with a strained laugh.

Nodding, Lena simply replied, “Yes, well, I’m sure your wife keeps you updated.”

Here, however, Lena saw it. The look she had been waiting for. The quick pause of breath, the slight raise in eyebrow, and the pressed lips. It was almost as if she could see the gears in Sam’s head working to solve Lena and whether or not she should say something about it. Lena held her breath.

“Oh, I think my wife is just about as out of the loop as it gets,” she finally settled on with a little laugh, as she ran her fingers through Ruby’s hair gently, and looking at Lena expectantly, as if she were supposed to chime in on some inside joke.

Smile stiffening a bit, Lena shrugs and comments, “Well, Kara does seem a bit all over the place some days, when she comes to pick up Ruby.” And Sam laughed, but Lena felt her stomach drop as she saw the look in her eyes.

She had just confirmed something for her, but she hadn’t a clue what. But she did know what she feared.

“Kara can definitely be like that,” Sam agreed, her eyes searching Lena’s. “Though I also know she looks forward to picking up Ruby every day. She says it’s the highlight of her day.”

Lena’s cheeks flushed a little more as she sputtered to respond to this, and Sam almost watched her with… amusement?

“Oh,” Lena started with a tense chuckle. “That Kara. She’s a charmer,” she commented, and she didn’t know what she was going to say when she opened her mouth to speak, but _fuck_ , she knew that was definitely the wrong thing to say to Kara’s wife.

Sam merely raised her eyebrows and let out a little laugh before looking down at Ruby and saying, “Hey Rubes, why don’t you wait for me at the bottom step?”

Lena felt her heart drop from her stomach all the way to her feet. She waited breathlessly for a painful few seconds as they both watched the little girl skip to the bottom step without protest before Sam was turning back to Lena and Lena felt like she might black out.

“Look, as morbidly entertaining it is to me to watch you guiltily dance around the fact you’ve been flirting with Kara all year, at the end of the day I’m a good person, and feel the need to put you out of your misery,” Sam leveled with serious eyes and a smirk, and Lena wished a hole would form from the earth and swallow her whole. She was sure her face was now an unpleasant shade of red as she made an undignified squeak and fought to protest that she hadn’t been doing exactly what she had been doing. “Kara’s my wife’s sister. She’s been helping us out by picking Ruby up while we’ve dealt with some crazy work schedule changes.”

Lena stared at Sam unmoving for a long moment, thousands of emotions rushing through her as she tried to piece together what she had just been informed.

With a giggle and a shake of the head, Sam turned to walk away from the school, motioning for Ruby to join her. “No worries though,” she related as she turned back slightly to the still stunned teacher at the top of the steps. “Kara will be back for the rest of the week,” she called out with a wink, causing Lena to flush once again, and without waiting for an answer, Sam rounded the corner and disappeared from view.

Lena slumped back down to sit on the steps numbly and buried her head in her knees. After a long moment, however, she let out a bit of a crazed laugh and lifted her head up with a wide smile and shook her head. Once the initial fear and embarrassment swept through her from the situation, her mind was now latched onto the reality that her phony crush throughout the year had potentially been _actually_ flirting with her. And maybe she had been actually flirting back. And maybe it wasn’t just a one-sided phony crush.

And maybe... she was really excited to see Kara tomorrow.

“Do you want to tell me exactly what you said to Lena yesterday?” Kara questioned the moment Sam walked through the door the following evening, hopping off the couch and crossing her arms for the interrogation.

Instead of cowering away from the question, however, Sam’s eyes lit up at the accusation, as if she was almost excited about it.

“Why? Did she say something today?” she asked eagerly, setting down her purse and grabbing a chair, as if she were waiting for Kara to gossip.

“You said you would be discreet!” Kara protested, whining a bit but not caring. “Not that you would explicitly tell her I’m into her.”

With a chuckle, Sam shook her head and defended, “I said no such thing. I just merely put to rest her idea that you’re my wife.”

Kara faltered a bit at this, and paused. “She thought I was your wife?” she asked, almost incredulously. If Lena thought Kara was married, well then…

Well then maybe none of the spark she had felt with her had been real all year after all.

Kara slumped back down onto the couch in a huff, sticking out her bottom lip and pouting as Sam walked over to her and sat beside her on the couch. “You would have thought she watched me kick a puppy the first time she saw me,” Sam related with a relentless grin. “I could see it in her eyes; she was very devastated to put a beautiful face to your beautiful wife.”

Scoffing a bit at this, Kara grumbled, “As if she isn’t more beautiful-”

Clapping her hand over Kara’s mouth with a smirk, Sam stated, “I know you’re heartsick right now, but it is definitely not in your best interests to insult the beauty of the woman who told your crush you’re available.”

Groaning and curling into the couch, Kara smashed her faced into the cushions and her muffled voice cried out, “You’re the worst, Sam.”

“I’ll take that as a complement,” Sam accepted easily, and laughed when it earned her another groan accompanied by some indistinct phrases. “Come on,” Sam pestered, shaking Kara’s shoulder slightly. “Tell me what happened today.” “Nothing!” Kara insisted a bit forcefully. “She just seemed a little different. Like, um, expectant? And I didn’t know what to make of it, so I kind of, um-”

“She ran away,” Ruby piped up, glancing up from where she was coloring on the floor. “After Miss Luthor tried to asked her if she wanted coffee.”

“She asked you out!” Sam nearly squealed, jumping a bit in her seat, and Kara immediately sat up and glared at her sister-in-law.

“No,” Kara pushed. “She seemed really uncomfortable bringing it up, which leads me to believe she didn’t want to bring it up at all, but your little display yesterday made her feel like she had to. I don’t want pity coffee, Sam.”

Rolling her eyes, Sam shook her head and commented, “You are just as dramatic as Alex, you know that?” Before Kara could protest, however, Sam continued, “Can’t you just accept things as they come to you? You like her; she likes you. Don’t make it complicated, Kara. It’s been so long since I’ve ever seen you interested in someone, let alone interested in someone who’s actually worthy of you.”

Gritting her teeth, Kara sagged back into the back of the couch again and crossed her arms as she stared at the ceiling, unwilling to offer a response to Sam’s plea. Quietly, Sam then stood from the couch and walked away, and Kara nearly sighed with relief that she was letting it go when keys flew in from behind her and hit her square in the chest.

Looking down, she picked up the keys to Sam’s van with furrowed eyebrows and turned back to look at Sam to question it. Sam beat her to the answer before the question was voiced.

“Tonight’s the car wash fundraiser the teachers are putting on,” she related. “I’ll feed you a home cooked meal if you go take my car to get washed while I cook.”

Right, so the idea of Sam’s cooking really fueled the reason Sam’s van (with Kara at the helm) was waiting in a line of cars at the local grocery store just to get some buckets of water thrown onto it and some elementary school teachers to half-heartedly scrub the sides with a shampoo and baking soda mixture. All in all, in Kara’s head, it seemed like a very innocent undertaking.

That was, until she saw Lena was there. Which of course Lena was there; she was one of the said elementary school teachers. That wasn’t the unsettling part.

The unsettling part was Lena had the job of speaking to the drivers of each car and collecting the money for the car wash. And just before Kara pulled up, already jittery at the prospect of talking to Lena again after her disastrous running away stunt she pulled earlier in the day, some of the teachers had decided to gang up on Lena to her unaware and dump a whole five gallon bucket of water on her from behind.

So yeah, _maybe_ Kara didn’t think this through. Maybe she should have considered the possibility that when she went to the school fundraiser car wash, she would come face to face with a soaking wet Lena Luthor whose clothes were now clinging to every single curve in her body. And maybe she should have considered that when Lena’s eyes would meet Kara’s after pulling her shirt away from her body to try to wring it out a little and Kara got a glance of the skin that was underneath, Kara would forget which pedal was the brake and which pedal was the gas and would give the van a little extra go before slamming on the brakes just before causing a collision with the car in front of her. And maybe she should have considered that Lena would lean into the van a bit through the open window to speak to her with sultry eyes and a small lip bite when she ran over to ask if Kara was okay and whether she wanted the normal wash or the special treatment.

All things considered, Kara was probably too intoxicated by Lena Luthor to drive safely back to Sam’s.

That did nothing to stop her from dropping off Sam’s keys and immediately grabbing her own keys and walking out the door.

(“Just remembered my car needs cleaned as well!”)

Honestly, Lena didn’t even seem suspicious the third time Kara came through the car wash.

(“Seriously, Kara, I don’t want my car washed in homoeroticism.”

“Alex, it’s for Ruby’s school. Give me your keys.”)

Instead, Lena just sauntered up to her like she had every time before, leaned a little further into the car and asked, “Special treatment again, Miss Danvers?”

It’s a miracle Kara made it home safely.

Lena honest to god did not know what to make of Kara Danvers.

Ever since Sam’s drop by visit at the beginning of the week, she had been flightier than usual. She had been so confident and suave for months, but something had shifted. The woman could barely hold a two sentence conversation with her in casual settings, and it would drive Lena crazy if it weren’t for the obvious other things she was doing that spelled out pretty clearly that Kara was interested in her.

For one, the car wash incident. Sure, maybe she could believe that she was just assigned car washing duty for all three cars she brought by, but that would be ignoring the obvious facts, which were these:

Kara was so distracted staring at her she almost caused a crash every time she went through the line.

Kara bit her lip and stared at Lena’s lips every time she was within five feet of her.

The last car she brought through was so spotless, Lena could tell it had just been cleaned within the past week.

She was almost certain Kara was attracted to her. And now she also knew with certainty that Kara wasn’t married or taken in any capacity. Lena was trying her best to make it clear to Kara that she also was not taken, but the message must not have been sticking. Either that, or something else was holding Kara back from making a move, and Lena for the life of her couldn’t figure out what it was.

She had found it incredibly endearing when Kara had bought the whole of Lena’s entries for the bake sale the night after the car wash. And the morning after the bake sale, when the whole school participated in a 5K, Kara had taken off the morning from her job to participate with Ruby. 

(Not that the second grader was all that interested in walking with her aunt when all of her friends were there. Which was how Lena had landed a half hour jog with Kara, the two making small talk the whole time, and Lena insisting Kara could run on ahead of her, and Kara insisting this was exactly the pace she liked taking.)

It was just a lot to add up, in Lena’s mind. The flirting, followed by the refusing to make a move, but also the small things that proved that Kara truly cared. Honestly, the only thing Lena was completely sure of in the past week was that she might be falling for Kara a lot harder than she should be for some crush.

The Friday of the last day of school before the holidays was always the Holiday Gala. The kids and their parents and the community in general were all invited to the park on the south side of town, and it was always a fun gathering for everyone before the students and their families broke off for a month to attend all their holiday plans and travels.

Kara had already informed Lena the day before at the 5K she wasn’t planning on attending the gala. Which was fine. Lena certainly wasn’t looking forward to seeing Kara there. Even after Kara had been bragging for weeks now about the limitless supply of ugly sweaters in her closet and how she could pull every single one of them off. 

No, instead Lena was going to celebrate with her community the end of the semester and the holiday season. And she would have a great time for about an hour before retiring back to her empty little house and cuddling up with her cat and embarking on a Pride and Prejudice marathon that certainly wouldn’t remind her of how lonely she was.

Sighing and looking at herself in the mirror, Lena rolled her eyes at how pitiful her train of thought was and straightened her shoulders a bit to truly take in her image in the mirror. It certainly was a different style than her usual floral print dresses for teaching, but this black and gold dress had been collecting dust in the back of her closet for years and she figured now was as good of a time as any to take it out.

The drive to the park took just shy of five minutes, and Lena was surprised at how many people were already there. Immediately upon her arrival, some of her coworkers swept her away to get another round of champagne, and it wasn’t long until her body was feeling warm and her head lighter.

“Miss Luthor!” she heard small, familiar voice call out from behind her, and Lena turned eagerly to greet Ruby. Many of her students had gone out of their way throughout the night to say hi to her, and it warmed her heart each time.

Lowering herself down a bit so she could talk to the young girl with more ease, Lena smiled widely and wished, “Happy holidays, Ruby! Are you enjoying yourself?”

Ruby nodded her head fast and held out her hands, citing, “I ate a candy cane that was this big!”

Lena chuckled a bit and widened her eyes commenting, “Oh my, how did that even fit in your tummy?” which earned a giggle from the young girl.

Before Lena could question it however, Ruby took a step closer and held her hand up to the side of her mouth, so as to conspiratally tell Lena a secret, and whispered, “I tried to get Aunt Kara here for you, but she has an article due tonight.”

Biting her cheek and trying to fight off the blush forming on her face, Lena let out a little laugh and shook her head. “Well your aunt has to do what she has to do then, doesn’t she?” she asked quietly with a pointed look, and Ruby furrowed her eyebrows and considered something for a moment.

“Miss Luthor, if you marry my aunt, will I have to call you Aunt Luthor?” she asked innocently, and Lena nearly choked on air.

“Oh hey, there you are Rubes,” Sam swept in, thankfully saving Lena from having to answer the rather uncomfortable question. “Lena! Hey!” she greeted with a wide smile when she saw who her daughter was talking to.

As Lena smiled and stood a little straighter to address Sam, she noticed another woman saddle up next to her with short cropped red hair, and her eyes lingered on her just long enough for Sam to pick up on providing the supplemental information.

“Lena, this is my wife Alex,” she introduced, and Alex immediately shot Lena a smile and held out her hand to shake.

As Lena reached out herself to shake Alex’s hand, she commented, “Kara’s sister, right?” And she immediately knew that was the wrong thing to say.

Alex eyebrows raised a bit and her lips quirked into a small smirk. “Correct. I’ve heard you’ve made quite the impression on her,” she offered, before being subtly cut off by her wife elbowing her in the stomach.

Feeling her cheeks pinken a bit, Lena tried to play it off confidently, responding, “Nothing that wasn’t reciprocated, I’m sure.”

Alex smiled warmly at this and nodded at bit a Lena, who felt the butterflies begin again in her stomach. Nothing like telling her crush’s sister she was definitely into her, she supposed.

“Alright,” Sam interrupted, grinning as well as she pulled out her phone. “Ruby do you want a picture with your favorite teacher?” she asked, and the young girl immediately cheered and ran over to stand right by Lena.

Crouching down again, the picture was taken in a moment and Sam, Alex and Ruby bid their goodbyes to continue their venture around the park.

Another half hour passed quicker than Lena anticipated. After the Danvers-Arias family, it seemed like non-stop families were coming up to her to thank her for the school year so far and how much they were looking forward to having their children back in her class again the following semester. Once she hit a lull in people coming up to talk to her, Lena felt sufficiently worn out and decided to begin making her way back to her car for the evening she had promised herself.

“Hey, fancy meeting you here,” a voice called out to her side, and Lena’s breath caught a bit as she recognized it immediately.

Even with hearing her voice before hand, nothing could quite prepare Lena for what she would see when she turned to face Kara. She nearly passed out on the spot. Instead of sporting her usually dorky glasses and ponytail as well as the expected ugly sweater, Kara instead wore a midnight blue suit that accentuated her arms just right, with her hair down in soft curls and no glasses obstructing her view into clear blue eyes.

“Hnmpf,” Lena stammered, unable to form any actual words as her heart beat rose and her cheeks flushed while Kara looked her up and down approvingly, the suave confidence that had been lacking the past week coming back in full force.

Chuckling a bit, Kara held out her hand slightly and inquired, “You want to go get a drink with me?”

Lena’s buzz from earlier in the night had already worn off and she was already halfway to her car, but she found herself agreeing and taking Kara’s hand, their fingers intertwining naturally, and Lena was sure her heart was beating loud enough everyone at the gala could hear it.

Once they had secured their glasses of red wine, Kara expertly wove them through the crowd towards a less crowded area they could talk without having to yell over people.

“Did you finish your article?” Lena blurted as soon as they were relatively alone, and Kara quirked her eyebrows up at her. “Uh, Ruby mentioned you couldn’t come because you had an article to write when I spoke to her earlier this evening,” she explained when she realized her question was a bit out of the blue.

Relaxing a bit, Kara nodded and responded, “Yeah I just finished it actually, so I figured I’d get cleaned up quick and pop over here to see if the party was still going.”

“I was actually just heading out,” Lena confessed, and she mentally kicked herself for telling Kara that as the woman immediately became concerned at a bit fidgety.

“Oh, I’m not holding you up, am I?” she asked quickly, studying Lena intently, and Lena shrugged her off.

“I just didn’t think there was anyone left here worth talking to,” she explained, her eyes never leaving Kara’s as she took a sip of her wine.

Kara let out a soft smile at that, and relaxed a little. “Still,” she offered, the sincerity never leaving her expression, “I know how overwhelming these events can be for some people. We could always… get out of here? Just the two of us? I have a bottle of wine at home we could kill.”

Kara watched Lena carefully as Lena tried to steady her breathing and not let herself get too excited or overreact, so as to scare Kara away.

“I would actually really like that,” Lena agreed gratefully, soft smile still painted on her face, and without waiting for any other conversation, Kara eagerly grabbed Lena’s hand and began weaving them through the crowd again towards the west edge of the park.

“My place is just down the block from here,” she explained as they left the park and headed down the sidewalk. Lena found herself thinking she didn’t care how far the walk was: Kara’s fingers were intertwined with hers and it was a beautiful night. A little chillier than normal, but nothing colder than she was used to from Metropolis. She had grown to love the milder winters here over the past few years since she had taken her teaching job across the country.

They arrived at the house in no time, and before Lena knew it, they were both curled up on opposite sides of Kara’s couch with wine glasses in their hands. Their conversation had been strong and easy for over an hour until the wine was emptied and the discussion comfortably lulled a bit, as Lena hummed happily drinking the last sips of her wine and Kara sat quietly across from her.

“I have a confession,” Kara finally blurted out, her face flushed as she looked down at the floor bashfully. “A few actually.”

Lena raised her eyebrows at this and turned to face Kara fully with a patient expression as the other woman picked nervously at her coat sleeve.

“I brought three cars to the car wash on Tuesday just to see you like…” Her voice trailed off as her hand gestured towards Lena vaguely, and Lena let out a little giggle.

“I kind of figured,” she offered with a wink, and Kara blushed even more.

“I also am deathly allergic to tree nuts,” she rushed out, and Lena’s eyebrows furrowed a bit as she faltered to process the statement.

After a moment, Lena stated, “But… you bought, like, six of my pecan pies the other night?” She hadn’t meant it to sound like a question, but Kara groaned a bit and hid her head in her hands, and a laugh began to bubble out of Lena’s chest. 

“That’s not all,” Kara confessed from within her hands before sighing and admitting, “I didn’t actually finish my article earlier. Alex sent me the picture of you and Ruby, and you just looked so, so-” Unable to find the word, Kara instead just gestured at her again, and Lena this time felt her whole body flush as she shifted her weight. “And I just knew I had to go and see you and invite you home, because I’ve been afraid all week that you think I was just flirting with you to flirt all year, but I’ve been serious about it the whole time because I _really_ like you, and I don’t know how-”

“Kara?” Lena interrupted her with a soft smile and tear-filled eyes as she scooted towards her.

Kara stuttered for a moment before looking at Lena expectantly and whispering, “Yeah?”

“I’m just going to kiss you now, okay?” Lena murmured, beginning to press her body up against Kara’s.

Kara barely got her nod in before Lena’s soft lips were pressed to hers, and every thought left in her head disappeared in favor of bathing in the warmth of Lena Luthor.


End file.
